Libya:

How Many Countries?

Every now and then I bump into somebody who’s busy trekking around the world putting a ‘been there’ tick beside a list of every country in the world. You can have arcane arguments about what ‘been there’ means – is the airport transit lounge good enough? But the start...

Gaddafi Lives – in North Korea at least

Speculating on what’s happening north of the border is a favourite South Korean occupation and the best story from my recent visit was that Gaddafi still lives. At least in North Korea.
Earlier this year Air Koryo, the North Korean flag carrier, started a weekly Py...

Dictator Style – Gaddafi & Others

◄ When I rewrote the intro to Bad Lands for a recent reprint I noted that nothing much had changed, Fidel in Cuba, Kim Jong-il in North Korea, a mess in Iraq, no driving licences for women in Saudi Arabia, the generals in Burma, everywhere you looked it was no change....

Gaddafi’s naughty boy

Travelling around Libya it struck me that Muammar al-Gaddafi was the Michael Jackson of dictators, always keen on appearing in fancy dress. He has just reinforced his whacky reputation by declaring a jihad on Switzerland and suggesting that Muslim nations should ban ...

Bad Lands … and Bad Lands II?

Bad Lands – my account of travels along George Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) plus six other assorted ‘interesting’ nations (Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia) is available from Lonely Pla...